ESTABLISHING HOW HEAD-TEACHERS’ CLASSROOM VISITATION PRACTICE INFLUENCES STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC JUNIOR SCHOOLS IN KEREN SUB-ZONE, ERITREA

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to establish how head-teachers’ classroom visitation influences students’ performance in public junior schools in Keren Sub-zone. The study was guided by systems theory and employed mixed-method approaches with a concurrent triangulation design. The study targeted public junior schools in Keren Sub-zone Anseba Region. Systematic sampling, simple random sampling and purposeful sampling were used to select 44 teachers, 326 students, five head-teachers, and two Educational Officers of the Keren Sub-zone. A total of 377 respondents took part in the study. Questionnaires were used to collect data from teachers and students, whereas interview was conducted to get information from head-teachers and Educational Officers. The quantitative data was analysed descriptively with the help of SPSS Version 21 and reported in frequency tables and percentages. The qualitative data was organized into themes based on the research questions and reported in a narrative form and direct quotations. The study established that in the high-performing schools, head-teachers practiced the classroom visitation activities better than those in poorly performing schools thus the reason for low performance in some public junior schools in Keren Sub-zone. The study concluded that in low-performing schools, head-teachers have not been considering some of the key classroom visitation practices such as supervision by walking around, monitoring of students’ discipline, and physical lesson observation. The study recommended that the ministry of education intensify supervision in the public junior schools to strengthen the quality of instructional supervision by the head-teachers. The study suggested that a similar study be done in other sub-zones in Eritrea to find out if the same findings can be established.  Article visualizations: